Some of the most frequent Brazilian surnames are Silva, Oliveira, Sousa, Lima, Pereira, Carvalho, Almeida, Ferreira, Alves, Barbosa, Freitas, Fernandes, Ronaldo, Costa or Rocha.
Portuguese is a Romance language derived from Vulgar Latin. It emerged in the middle of the 3rd century BC in the northern region of what is now Portugal. Although the Portuguese understand the Brazilians and vice versa, Brazilian Portuguese has certain differences.
Portuguese is the official language of 9 countries and currently has about 240 million speakers around the world, making it the seventh most widely spoken language in the world. About 200 million of these speakers are in Brazil.
List of the most frequent Brazilian surnames
- Silva: It comes from the Latin silva, which means jungle or forest. It is the most common surname in Brazil, it is estimated that more than 20 million inhabitants in the South American country have that surname.
-Oliveira: Its origin is related to the ancient sowers of the olive tree.
-Sousa: Originally used to identify the inhabitants near the Sousa River, located in the north of Portugal. Its variants D'Sousa and De Sousa, literally mean Sousa.
- Saints: Of Christian origin, from the Latin sanctus, whose meaning is literally "Holy".
- Lima: To denote the inhabitants of the vicinity of the Limia river (In Portuguese, Lima), which crosses Spain and Portugal.
- Pereira: Of Portuguese origin, it means "Pear tree"
- Carvalho: Topographic surname, for those who lived nearby or worked with oaks.
- Rodrigues: It means "Son of Rodrigo".
- Ferreira: From the Latin ferrum, which means iron. To identify blacksmiths and metal craftsmen.
- Almeida: Used to denote the inhabitants of the town of Almeida, in Portugal. It also comes from the Arabic Al ma'idah, which means "The plateau" or "The Hill" referring to the town of Almeida.
- Alves: It means "Son of Álvaro".
- Martins: From the Latin martialis, which means "From Mars". Referring to the Roman God of War, Mars.
- Gomes: From the proper name, Gomes. It is also a derivative of the Gothic guma, which means "Man."
- Barbosa: To denote the inhabitants of Barbosa, an ancient town located in Évora, Portugal.
- Gonçalves: It means "Son of Gonçalo".
- Araújo: To denote who lived near a town called Araujo. There are multiple towns and places in Portugal with this name.
- Coast: To denote who lived near a coast or a riverbank.
- Rocha: From Galician rocha, which means rock or precipice. It was used to denote who lived in the vicinity of a cliff.
- Lopes: From the Latin lupus, which means Wolf.
- Freitas: Means "Broken" in Portuguese. It is associated with the inhabitants of stony areas, commonly known as "Broken Earth".
- Mountains: To denote who lived on or near a mountain.
- Cardoso: From the Latin carduus, which means thorny. To indicate that someone raised cacti or lived in an area where they were common.
- Dias: It means "Son of Diego".
- Ribeiro: Derived from the Portuguese ribeira, which means stream of water. It was originally used to identify those who lived near a river.
- Machado: From the Portuguese machado, which means ax. Commonly associated with those who were involved in felling trees by using an ax.
- Fernandes: It means "Son of Fernando".
- Teixeira: To denote who lived near Teixeira, the name of several localities throughout Portugal.
References
- Behind the Name. (2002). Portuguese Surnames. 2017, from Behind the Name Website: Portuguese Surnames.
- Family Education. (2000). Portuguese Last Names. 2017, by Sandbox Networks Website: Portuguese Last Names.
- Cynthia Fujikawa Nes. (2016). Names in Brazil. 2017, from The Brazil Business Website: Names in Brazil.
- Karen Keller. (2013). Portuguese For Dummies. United States: John Wiley & Sons.
- Milton M. Azevedo. (2005). Portuguese: A Linguistic Introduction. UK: Cambridge University Press.
- Amber Pariona. (2017). Portuguese Speaking Countries. 2017, from World Atlas Website: Portuguese Speaking Countries.
- Simons, Gary F. and Charles D. Fennig. (2017). Summary by language size. 2017, from Ethnologue Summary by language size.